LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A death row inmate should get another hearing because of ineffective counsel leading up to his conviction and sentence, the prisoner’s lawyer told the Arkansas Supreme Court Thursday.

Attorney Patrick Benca told the high court there were issues about Brandon Eugene Lacy’s mental health that should have been brought up at trial.

“How come they didn’t discuss the fact that Mr. Lacy was drinking since 10 years old?” Benca asked during oral arguments.

Lacy, now 34, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2009 for the slaying of Randall Walker, 47, in northwest Arkansas’ Benton County.

Prosecutors said Lacy hit Walker on the head with a fireplace poker, stabbed him in the chest with a knife and then used gasoline and a lighter to set fire to his mobile home in 2007.

Lacy’s co-defendant, Broderick Laswell, also was convicted of capital murder in Walker’s death. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Benca wrote in a court document that “the circuit court further erred in denying Lacy a hearing, instead accepting the State’s claim that trial counsel’s investigation was sufficient and that not putting on additional witnesses, including experts was likely due to ‘strategy.”’

During oral arguments Thursday, Benca fielded questions from some of the seven justices about whether those moves amounted to legal strategy.

“Wasn’t that a strategic decision to forego presenting some of those factors and some of that evidence?” Associate Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson asked Benca.

Benca acknowledged there was some indication of that, but he shifted the conversation back to what evidence didn’t come up at trial.

Another justice, Paul Danielson, also interrupted him.

“You’re making some good arguments about how this case might have been tried better if you were going to try it from day one, but we’re getting away from the review of ineffective assistance ...” Danielson told Benca.

Eileen Harrison, an assistant attorney general representing the state, argued that the facts in Lacy’s case overwhelmingly supported his conviction and sentence.

“Even the most able attorney who would execute a flawless defense strategy cannot overcome the facts of a case,” Harrison said Thursday in court.